More than 80% of firms say citizen developers are becoming increasingly important to their business, according to a new report from 451 Research and FileMaker, Inc.

In a survey of more than 500 North American companies, respondents said that creating and deploying custom apps has propelled business outcomes. Further, the majority agreed that custom app strategies are best conducted by business departments rather than IT, the report found.

This points to a larger trend, the report stated: Organizations are increasingly shifting from centralized development that caters to the needs of distributed teams to a decentralized app creation model. This way, individual business departments can create, modify, and manage processes closer to where those issues occur, and offer a more efficient and easy way to move digital transformation projects forward, the report noted.

Nearly 60% of all custom apps are now built outside the IT department, companies reported. Of those, 30% are built by employees with either limited or no technical development skills. And 82% of businesses reported that citizen developers will become more important over the next two years.

This is especially prevalent in small companies, where 47% of business owners are leading their app development strategy, the report found.

These results follow a general trend businesses are taking toward low-code platforms: As demand for developers outpaces supply, many companies are turning to these tools, which allow professionals without coding experience to build apps.

The ability to create custom apps in lines of business improves employee engagement, according to 451 Research, as engagement is driven by greater autonomy and a higher potential to influence business process design and impact.

"Digitization is prompting organizations across industries to look for new ways to meet

challenges and drive business outcomes," said Ann Monroe, vice president of worldwide marketing and customer success at FileMaker, Inc. "With today's custom app platforms and an increased focus on speed and agility, it's time to empower those close to the business questions with the tools to create the digital answers."

Want to use this data in your next business presentation? Feel free to copy and paste these top takeaways into your next slideshow.

82% of businesses say citizen developers will become more important over the next two years. -451 Research and FileMaker, Inc., 2017

Nearly 60% of all custom apps are now built outside the IT department. -451 Research and FileMaker, Inc., 2017

In small companies, 47% of business owners are leading their app development strategy. -451 Research and FileMaker, Inc., 2017

Image: iStockphoto/champja

Stay informed, click here to subscribe to the TechRepublic Tech News You Can Use newsletter.